My duty now awaits me

It's off to Chi-town on Thursday for a concert I'm really excited about: Listen up, y'all. It's D-E-V-O!

I wrote about the Ohio mutants a couple of years ago. It was fun to read that entry and see that I wrote about a brief reunion and talk of a possible album. It was true! "Something For Everybody" came out a couple of months ago, and it's done quite well. It got very good reviews, it did pretty well on the charts, and although I don't have the numbers, I think it has sold well. I know that it has been my CD of the summer, and it's all I've played since it came out. (I tend to get stuck on a CD that way.)

I've loved Devo since Shane and I first saw them on "Saturday Night Live" in the late '70s. It was one of the most bizarre things we'd ever seen, and we were immediately captivated. Shane got to see them on July 4th in Milwaukee, and here is the set list:

• don't shoot (i'm a man)
• peek-a-boo
• what we do
• going under
• fresh
• that's good
• girl u want
• whip it
• planet earth
• satisfaction
• secret agent man
• uncontrollable urge
• mongoloid
• jocko homo
• smart patrol/mr. d.n.a.
• gates of steel
• devo corporate anthem
• freedom of choice
• beautiful world

Oh man. I'm going to be...well, I don't know. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it. I just need to make sure I don't burn out early. You know how you get so excited about something and your adrenaline is pumping...and then you hit a wall and you're down for the count? No? Is that just me?

Anyway, it will be a celebration with my friend Doug. Not only is it his birthday, he'll be deploying to Cuba at the end of the month, so it's a chance to send him off in devoluted style! The venue is the Congress Theater in Chicago, and it's a place I haven't been before. It sounds pretty cool, an actual old theater dating from the mid-1920s. If you're in town, stop by and buy me a beer! I will return the favor. It's a fairly small place, and I'm hoping to get up by the stage. I've already confirmed that I can take pictures and video, so I hope to have both for you. I investigated nearby places to eat, and found a place called the Congress Pizzeria. The reviews say that it's got the atmosphere of a mob hangout. I am so there! Red naugahyde booths. I'm going to be in retro heaven.

This video is for Deb, who loves this song. I do, too! "She sings from somewhere you can't see, she sits in the top of the greenest tree, she sends out an aroma of undefined love, it drips on down in a mist from above...she's just the girl, just the girl, the girl u want!"

Beth’s Music Moment – New Devo!

This past week, Devo issued their first studio album in 20 years, "Something For Everybody." Extensive market research and fan input from their website, ClubDevo, provided everything from which songs would be included on the CD to the colors used on the artwork and new uniforms (blue energy dome, yay!).

I had heard a couple of songs prior to the release this past week, and the band made appearances on multiple talk shows, including Letterman, Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel. (And Regis and Kathy Lee Kelly, but I missed that one.) I got my CD in the mail on Thursday, and I've listened to it several times already. I have to say that I am very, very pleased! Here are brief comments on the tracks.

1. Fresh - This is the first single, and according to my niece Jen, it's getting a lot of airplay in San Diego, so I assume it's getting play in other large cities. Very up-tempo, and this is the song that I've heard them play on the talk shows.

2. What We Do - Some heavy bass here that reminds me of "Going Under" from "New Traditionalists." That's one of my favorite Devo songs, so this is a good thing.

3. Please Baby Please - Another up-tempo song, with great harmonies and a straight-up rock guitar solo.

4. Don't Shoot (I'm A Man) - This is my favorite song on the CD (so far). It's got a very danceable techno beat, and it's hard to go wrong with a song that uses "Don't taze me, bro!" in its lyrics. In fact, it's impossible.

5. Mind Games - I love these lines: "She tries on dresses half her size...She wiggles till you give her love." The way Mark sings "mind games" with that hard Midwestern accent makes me think of him gnawing off a piece of beef jerky.

6. Human Rocket - More heavy backbeat.

7. Sumthin' - "I'm the leader of the Western world, the big decider in the neighborhood." Gee, wonder who this is about? A nice political dig, saying that any politician will try to pretend that he or she has something for everybody.

8. Step Up - "Listen up, y'all. It's D-E-V-O. Take a hard line, let some fur fly, learn to stay high above the stormy sea...it's never to late to shake that thing!"

9. Cameo - One of the more goofy songs here, still with that heavy backbeat and still danceable.

10. Later Is Now - LIghter fare, with more ethereal synths.

11. No Place Like Home - A beautiful piano intro, and the only somewhat slow song on here, although still upbeat. "In the biggest scheme of things, we haven't been around here more than a moment. We are creating a brand new world without us." An environmental song that basically says that we're polluting ourselves right out of existence.

12. March On - He was a "good soldier." Subliminal messages here, with someone intoning "Sex" and "Love" at certain points. I love this CD! Although the synths are still there big time, this one has a heavier rock beat than many of their early albums. I wonder if their new drummer, Josh Freese, has anything to do with that? He played with Nine Inch Nails and Guns 'N Roses. Maybe he brought a heavier touch to the band, and I am not complaining! There are none of the slower masterpieces like "Mongoloid" or "Shrivel Up," but every song on this disc is fun and rocking. Mark Mothersbaugh said that although they still use their analog synthesizers, they are also now using computers to make music. Viva technology!

I think a lot of people never understood just how subversive and political Devo was (and is). Birthed from the tragedy at Kent State, the Spudboys were always about questioning authority, and believed that we are on a downward spiral: de-evolution. (Or as Stephen Colbert put it, "intelligent decline.") Although our physical makeup might be evolving, our ethical attributes are becoming increasingly clouded and obscured. Aren’t we seeing that now? Devo always understood this; the rest of the world has had to catch up to them. Mothersbaugh says that Devo's philosophy is "intact. That's what set us apart in the first place—we were always pro-information, anti-stupidity. We were reporting the news of de-evolution, which is now less of a hard sell than it used to be."

You got that right, Mark.

I've always loved Devo, and this new CD is a lot of fun. Does it have the oomph of their early CDs? Of course not. As Roland would say, the world has moved on. But this is still a lot of fun, and I am very pleased that the mutants from Akron, Ohio are still making music. Duty now for the future, spuds.